Depreciation is the largest cost of ownership that never sends an invoice. Understood early, it shapes which aircraft to buy and when to sell; understood late, it is the bill that arrives at exit.
Every owner accepts that a jet loses value. Few model how much, how fast, or what they can do about it — and so the depreciation curve, rather than the operating budget, frequently decides whether ownership made financial sense. The good news is that the curve is well understood, and the levers that flatten it are within an owner's control.
A private aircraft follows a depreciation curve steeper at the front than the back. The loss is sharpest in the first years off the production line, then moderates as the aircraft matures, before flattening into a long, shallow decline. This is why the buyer of a two-to-four-year-old aircraft often captures the best value: the first owner has absorbed the steepest part of the curve.
As a working guide, a new jet commonly sheds in the region of 10 to 15 percent of its value in the first year and a further several percent annually through the early period, such that many aircraft retain only 50 to 60 percent of their original price after five to seven years. The precise path depends on type, condition, the maintenance status of engines and airframe, and where the broader market sits in its cycle. Depreciation is relentless but not uniform, and the differences between aircraft are large enough to matter.
The table below sets out indicative retained value as a proportion of original price, by age, for the three broad classes. These are working ranges drawn from market behaviour, not quotes; an individual aircraft moves within them according to condition, programme status and specification.
| Age | Light jet | Midsize jet | Heavy / ultra-long-range |
| 1 year | ~85–90% | ~85–90% | ~88–92% |
| 3 years | ~70–78% | ~72–80% | ~78–85% |
| 5 years | ~55–65% | ~58–68% | ~68–78% |
| 10 years | ~35–45% | ~38–50% | ~50–62% |
| 15+ years | ~20–30% | ~25–35% | ~35–48% |
Two patterns stand out. Larger, long-range aircraft generally hold value better in proportional terms, supported by deeper demand and longer production lives. And every class flattens with age — the proportional loss between years ten and fifteen is far smaller than between years one and three, which is why an older aircraft, bought right, can be a relatively stable asset.
Two identical-looking airframes can be worth materially different sums. The variables that defend resale value are well known to the buyers who will one day price your aircraft.
The corrosive factors are the mirror image: deferred maintenance, an engine coming due for overhaul, incomplete logs, and an interior or paint scheme dated by fashion. Most are within the owner's control during the hold.
No depreciation table survives contact with the market cycle. Pre-owned aircraft values are cyclical, driven by the balance between available inventory and buyer demand, and that balance can swing hard. In a tight market — few aircraft for sale, strong demand — values firm, depreciation appears to pause, and well-kept aircraft can sell within weeks. In a soft market, inventory builds, prices fall faster than the underlying curve, and an aircraft can sit for many months.
The practical lesson is that timing the sale into a favourable market can outweigh a year or two of underlying depreciation. An owner forced to sell into a glut realises a poor price; one able to wait for, or move ahead of, a tightening market captures a better one. Macro conditions — interest rates, tax treatment, corporate confidence — drive these swings, which is why a sale decision should read the market as carefully as it reads the aircraft's own age and hours.
There is no universal moment to sell, but there are recurring inflection points where the arithmetic shifts. Many owners find the cleanest exit is before a major, expensive event falls due — an engine overhaul or a heavy structural check — since the cost of that event is largely priced out of the aircraft if it is sold with the event imminent, yet recovers little of the cash if performed and then sold.
Against these sits the cost of changing aircraft — transaction fees, the value lost on the next purchase, the friction of re-crewing. Holding a well-kept, programme-enrolled aircraft deep into the flat part of the curve is often the quietly rational choice for an owner who flies it.
The same curve that governs your eventual sale governs your purchase, and the disciplined owner uses it on both sides. On acquisition, the two-to-four-year-old aircraft is frequently the value sweet spot: the first owner has absorbed the steepest depreciation, yet the aircraft is modern, on programme and far from its first heavy check. Buying brand new buys the steepest part of the curve; buying very old buys lower maintenance reliability and dated systems.
On sale, value is defended long before the aircraft is listed: by keeping it on programme, completing inspections on time, holding the records in immaculate order, and resisting an interior so personal that the next buyer must redo it. Treat depreciation not as an inevitability to be endured but as a cost to be managed — chosen at purchase, controlled through the hold, and crystallised at a moment of your selecting rather than the market's. Approached that way, resale value becomes a lever rather than a surprise.
We source, vet and negotiate private aircraft on both sides of the transaction — helping buyers enter at the value point of the curve and helping owners exit into the right market — through a closed network of brokers we have quietly tested, under NDA. Our team reads the aircraft's records and the market cycle on your behalf, structures the deal around your privacy, and makes introductions on a commission basis. Your interest comes first; your name stays private.
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Most steeply at the front of its life. A new jet commonly loses 10 to 15 percent in the first year and several percent annually thereafter, retaining only around 50 to 60 percent of its original price after five to seven years. The curve then flattens, so older aircraft give up value far more slowly.
Larger, long-range aircraft generally retain value better in proportional terms, supported by deeper demand and longer production lives. Within any class, the value holders are aircraft on an engine programme, with clean records, low damage history, current avionics and a popular type designation.
Significantly. An aircraft enrolled on JSSI, CorporateCare, ESP or MSP typically commands 10 to 25 percent more at resale, because the buyer inherits a predictable per-hour engine cost rather than an open-ended overhaul liability. The premium is captured only while the aircraft remains current on programme.
Generally before a major, expensive event such as an engine overhaul or heavy check falls due, while the aircraft is still on programme and current, and into a tightening market where inventory is thin. Timing the sale into a favourable cycle can outweigh a year or two of underlying depreciation.
Often, in value terms. A two-to-four-year-old aircraft lets the first owner absorb the steepest part of the depreciation curve while you acquire a modern, on-programme jet far from its first heavy check. Very old aircraft are cheaper still but carry higher maintenance and obsolescence risk.
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